PIK Professor Rakesh Vohra: An Interdisciplinary Innovator

Drawing from the seemingly disparate fields of economics, electrical engineering, and computer science, Rakesh Vohra’s work requires the support of an institution resolutely committed to interdisciplinary research—a level of commitment he says few institutions beyond Penn have. With appointments in the School of Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Rakesh Vohra is the George A. Weiss and Lydia Bravo Weiss University Professor, Professor of Economics, Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering, and Co-director of the Warren Center for Network & Data Sciences.

Drawing from the seemingly disparate fields of economics, electrical engineering, and computer science, Rakesh Vohra’s work requires the support of an institution resolutely committed to interdisciplinary research—a level of commitment he says few institutions beyond Penn have.

Vohra is an innovator in mechanism design and forecasting in low informational environments, and has pioneered new ways to design effective markets for purposes as diverse as the power grid, online advertising, wireless spectrum access, and the allocation of donor kidneys.